Anishifters : Introducing the Shapeshifters
by luckydarkpage
Summary: What would you do if you were chosen to fight war that shouldn't exist? If your friends were beside you? Could you lead them to their possible deaths? Read how one young man does it. *Mild Slash... and looking for a beta for a possible rewrite!*
1. Jerryd

**_Disclaimer: All right I don't own this... But give me time and a little bit of magic and I'll change that!! Evil laugh... _**

**_AN: Okay so I don't know if I'm going to continue this but if there's enough interest I will... but let me know please!.. and also my first actual story fic so any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated and one last thing this fic is going to mainly revolve around the crazy characters i made up myself.. but i do have some plans for sequel.. so here goes read and enjoy!!_**

I was walking home that night with Jamie, the night my life changed forever. It's been almost three years since then and I still can't believe it happened. To me! Me! Of all people! I didn't know anything about leading an army, I didn't know how to fight, I was a pascifist before all this! All I knew about strategy was what I learned from playing chess. However brain stimulating chess is, it's not the best teacher for learning how to fight a war against aliens.

My names Jerryd by the way, as far as you know just Jerryd, no last name. I live in a fairly normal town with fairly normal people if you don't count me and my friends and my ex-boyfriend. And don't get me started on him, he's in class of weirdness all on his own. I do normal chores like doing dishes, laundry on occasion, my room only when mom tells me too after three days of nagging and after the usual disappointment lecture of how I'm old enough to know when to clean up on my own. I go to a boring school with annoying cheerleaders, dumbass jocks, and odd teachers. The only thing fairly extraordinary about me is my height (5 ft 7 by the way), the fact Im native american... Oh and the fact that Im a leader for the human resistance against brain infesting slugs called the yeerks. Other than that I'm completely normal.

I know your probably thinking that I'm insane in the membrane and the people in white with those nice jackets with the arms that cross over your chest and strap in the back are coming for me pretty soon. Gods I hope they would, because then maybe everything I'm about to tell wouldn't be real, that I'm having nightmares that I almost wake from screaming nightly for no reason at all, and maybe just maybe you and your loved ones won't be in danger while you all live blissful ignorance. But until they do come (and I hope they do) please take the story I'm about to tell you seriously because it might just save you from a fate worse than death.

Earth is being invaded. Simple as that, invaded by these strange gray slugs who call themselves the yeerks. Yeah, I know what you thinking. "Ooooh, slugs, whats so scary about that?" Well guess what, these not-so-scary slugs, have the ability to slide into your ear canal and go into your head and take complete control. You have no control over when you sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, even breathe, because the yeerk has taken over and your a prisoner in your own mind, screaming for someone to notice, for someone to help, but noone can. That's because noone can tell because the yeerk can act exactly as you do, have the same mannerisms, even that little specific eye roll that your parents hate so much. So yeah they're not so scary right? And the only thing standing between the yeerks and victory? My friends and me, depressing huh?

So back to that night when my life changed, we were walking home from another stupid slasher movie, after some hilarious commentary provided by yours truly and my significant other, Jamie, or James as I called him. I was the only one allowed to call him James, don't ask why, it's just the way it was. "James,", I said, " you seem nervous," he was twitchy all night, the only sign thats something's off with him, well also the times when he didn't seem completely, I know this sounds even weirder, but not completely solid. Like one time when he was waiting for a phone call from someone named Erek, I tried to hold his hand and I could've sworn that my hand literally went right through his, crazy, right?

"Huh?" he said with a dopey look on his face, he never looked dopey before and right now I was distracted by how cute it looked on him. He kind of smiled and realized what I said. "Oh, its nothing," he began trying to be private. When he's usually trying to be private, I usually left him alone because he worked best alone when under pressure, but I don't know this time it felt like this time he needed help but was afraid to ask. So I decided to push this time, I sometimes wonder what might've happened if I just followed the pattern we set ourselves into.

"You know, if you ever need my help just ask, okay?" I said looking into his eyes. That's when he did his not so completely solid thing again, because I could've sworn just for a second that I was looking at tree right behind him, but there he was again completely there. I just chalked it up to not enough sleep, as usual.

"I know," he said hesitantly. He pulled me closer and kissed me just briefly on the lips, it wasn't much but it was enough for me to realize that something was seriously wrong. Right after he kissed me his phone rang. After it rang he looked nervous, like he didn't want to answer but knew he needed to. "Sorry," he whispered, "do me a favor and stay quiet and stay near me don't wander off please?" It was an odd request, because he knew I liked to stay away from people when they were on the phone because it always felt like an invasion of privacy whenever I stayed near enough to listen, but I nodded anyways trusting him like I always did. He mouthed 'thanks' before he answered his phone. " Yeah," he said in a tone I never heard before it kind of worried me. But the voice on the end filled me with dread like knowing something horrible was about to happen that I couldn't stop.

"Where are you? You're supposed to be here helping with this family," the voice said with venom and with a threat lingering in the air. James squeezed my hand gently, to let me know that everything was going to be okay.

"I'm sorry but my host's mate had plans that conflicted with our plans tonight and if I didn't go then he might've suspected something," James said in that same tone, _Host? _I thought confused. I almost asked what he was talking about, but he shook his head which stopped me.

"That host's mate has been becoming more troublesome as of late," the voice began I was starting to get worried, more worried than I've ever been, "Daniss 4453 either get rid of him or bring him in, that is an order!" James's face grew very pale when the voice told him bring me in, I looked at him, he was really twitchy and doing the not completely solid thing again. I looked away not wanting to see the truth, at least not yet.

"Yes sir," he said wearily, "I'll get rid of him, it'd be too suspicious if I brought him in," I could feel him looking at me, but I kept looking at my surroundings anywhere but at him.

"How would that be Daniss 4453?" the voice said laced with suspicion and poison, "You know we need more hosts."

"Well he wouldn't be all that useful, he isn't all that intelligent, nor does he have any pull with any of the potential hosts of his age, and he isn't all that connected with the local government," James said it hurt me that he said that. _Did he really think that of me? I mean I know I wasn't the best looking or the smartest, or even popular in any way, shape, or form, _I was thinking. I couldn't believe he said all these things about me.

"Fine, just get rid of him then, he can't keep forcing you to neglect your duties that you have to the Empire, do you understand?" he demanded. For the first time in a while, I looked at him. He was freaking out, I realized I had been putting his life in danger and I don't know why or from what. I knew tonight would be our last night together even though we loved each other.

"Yes sir, I understand sir," James or Daniss 44 whatever said and he hung up. I looked into his eyes searching for something, anything to tell me that I wasn't being lied to this entire time.

"James, or whatever you're called, what the hell's going on?" I demanded, I knew I didn't sound anywhere near as threatening as that voice did. "What did that guy mean by 'hosts'? Whose family?" I admit, I was freaking out. But you try to remain calm after finding out that the person you've been dating has been leading a dangerous life and kept it hidden from you for who knows how long! "I mean who the hell was he?! What did he mean either get rid of me or bring me in!" After each question, I started to push on him and every now and then hit him, I was getting louder and he looked away. When he looked away, if it was possible he got even paler, then he grabbed me and pushed me into a tree and kissed me hard. I bit his lip and tried to push him away.

"Stop, trying to fight me," he whispered harshly, "I'm trying to save your life, work with me and I promise I'll explain everything," He looked into my eyes, I nodded. He went back to kissing me. I looked behind him and saw two people walk up behind him. Then I felt his wieght lift off of me.

"Hey Jamie, everything okay?" One of them said, he was smiling, but it felt off. I was looking between the two of them. One had baseball cap on with a dark colored t-shirt, and blue jean, the other had glasses on and was basically wearing the same thing. They didn't look threatening but there was something off about them.

"Yeah, Dan, everything was going great until you came along," he said in a joking manner. He smiled then said, "So what was with the whole pulling me off my boyfriend thing?"

"Well, we heard yelling and you weren't at the Sharing meeting either, so we decided to check if everything was all right," Glasses said. He sent a significant look to James, that seemed to be about me.

"Jamie, Mr. Sevik said he wanted all of the senior members at this meeting," Cap said, " He said it was mandatory for all of us to be there," Cap seemed to be the on in charge of the senior members.

"Um, well sorry I didn't know that this meeting was mandatory, but you see it's our anniversary and well I just wanted to spend some time since you all seem to have him a lot lately," I said, covering for James. "It's kind of weird that an organization like the Sharing would have mandatory meeting, right now because it's nowhere near a holiday that I know of," I commented as if I was talking to myself but saying loud enough for everyone to hear. I looked at James, and saw that he was looking at me with what looked like pride and admiration.

"Well, its just we're planning for this trip that only the senior members get to go on," Glasses said a bit afraid. Afraid of what, I didn't know yet, but much to my dismay I was going to find out later that night. Glasses looked at me with suspicion and also some disgust, but I just smiled at him.

"Oh really? so where are you guys going?" I asked cheerily, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't say anything cheerily. Everyone looked at me, apparently they knew me well enough. _Well that sucks, _I thought,_ apparently I needed to work on my lying_.

"It's just a trip, nothing for you to worry about," Cap said snappily. James sent a look my way saying _Just shut up for second, I'll get us outta here_. I looked at James and nodded so slightly, that I wasn't even sure if he saw it. Then he sent a small smile my way, and my heart lifted just a bit.

"So Dan, Kevin is there anything else you need to tell me?" James said sending a look towards them. They shook their heads. "Okay then I'll take Jer with me and we'll finish this later," He grabbed my hand and we walked away. I looked at him, realizing that we needed to stay quiet until they couldn't hear us anymore. He leaned into me and whispered in my ear, "Remember no matter what I show and tell you tonight, what we had was real and that I really did love you. " I nodded my head and he kissed my cheek. I didn't realize how hard it would be to remember that simple, yet extraordinary thing.


	2. Faye

_**AN: so thanks to everyone who read and thanks to my first reviewer!! I feel so special.. so here goes I'll try to make the next one longer.. enjoy and read and review pls!! reviews make me update faster!...**_

_**Faye**_

We were waiting on Jerryd to come out of his home so we could go to the magical wonderful place called School! Yay! Note the sarcasm, we being, Blade my cousin who was born on the same day as I was, damn him for trying to steal my birthday, and my best friend Riana, who was also Blade's girlfriend, and me Faye, the supreme goddess! Okay not really but give me time.

So as I was saying we were waiting on Jerryd to come out so we could got to our daily torture, but he hadn't even looked out the window yet to let us know that he knew we were here. So naturally we got worried, I looked at Blade and said, "Yo Bozo, cut the engine, I think we have to do an ambush, or we're going to be late" He sent a death glare at me as usual for using his nickname from me and I'm the only that's allowed to call him that. I of course sent him a smirk in response, but he did as I asked and we walked up to the front door and knocked, hoping that the door wouldn't fall on us and kill us or that Jerryd's grandmother wouldn't be here. She sometime made surprise visits, I think to try to get Jerryd's mom in trouble but since Jerryd never confirmed nor denied this claim of mine I have no actual clue. Sharon, Jerryd's mom or Mommy dearest as we called her, answered the door.

"Oh hey kids," she sent us each a smile, "he's just now waking up, he got home pretty late last night," she smiled knowingly as she said this. She thought her son had already lost his virginity despite what he says, and as far as we knew of, Jerryd was telling the truth. We nodded knowing it was useless to argue with her, and entered the trailer that they lived in. We each sat in the kitchen grabbing a donut from a Daylight Donuts box, waiting for Jerryd. We talked and babbled about random things, from anime to a test we had in algebra that day. Then Jerryd walked in, looking like hell and that he was in a nightmare. He looked at us with a brief glance of distrust that noone but me noticed, then he changed and put on a mask of his usual early morning grumpiness. He kept glancing at each of us like he didn't know us anymore.

"Hey Jerryd I need to ask your advice about something," I said knowing he wouldn't turn me down. He nodded and we walked into his room which was the furthest room from the street, as he closed the door, I turned around and glared at him. He turned around and saw my glare and raised an eyebrow at my glare.

"Well?" he said defiantly asking me to explain the glare. I wasn't going to back down and apparently niether was he. He stood there with his eyebrow raised and a frown on his face, and I stared back glaring full force. He knew what the glare was for, he just wasn't going to tell me without a fight. "I thought you wanted some advice," he said with a snarky tone that made me just want to slap him.

"Okay here's my problem," I began acidly knowing how much he hated that, but I hated being stared at as if my best and oldest friend couldn't trust me, "I have this friend who keeps looking at me like I just betrayed his trust, making me feel horrible for something I didn't do, and what's worse is that he's doing this with a smile on his face even though I can tell it's killing him on the inside," I paused to take a breath and to regain control of my emotions. We've only had a conversation like this once before when he came out of the closet and he was so scared that he would lose us. Last time it took me two days to blow up, I swore if he did this again I'd blow up right then and there no matter the consequences. He looked at me realising he was doing it again. "So what do you think I should do, Jerryd? Hm?" I demanded not caring at the fact that I hurt him, he hurt me so we were even.

"After telling him what an ass he's being," he began quietly looking at the floor, "You should let him have a chance to beg for forgiveness again and let him explain whats going on at the right time," When he finished, I was stunned. I couldn't believe that he asked me to wait on the explanation. I'd already forgiven him, I knew that much, but I needed to know what happened this time, so I could help him get through this. He looked at me pleadingly, "Please Faye, I'll tell you tonight during our arcade night with the others," I nodded knowing that if it involved letting the others in then it had to be bad. He looked like it was the end of the world, but we would've told him it wouldn't be, boy how wrong we would've been.

We walked back into the kitchen, after we had calmed down. He still had the mask on but it wasn't as guarded. He never did explain how he became so good at hiding his feelings, but Mommy Dearest said it was because of his father, the only time when we see true emotion is when he's with us and when he's with Jamie. "Okay lovebirds," I said cheekily, " time for us to get!" I smacked the back of Blade's head at the end of my comment.

"You're jus' jealous that you have noone to give you kisses to," he replied rubbing the back of his head. I stuck my tongue out at him, which he did the same.

"See this what you get for dating someone from Faye's family," I heard Jerryd whisper to Riana as she snickered. I look at them and they have these almost equal looks of mischievousness, almost because the smile didn't quite reach Jerryd's eyes.

"Okay kids you're going to be late if you don't leave now," Mommy Dearest said reminding us the reason why we were up at seven o' clock in the morning! We rushed out into Blade's car and drove to school in under five minutes, which was cool because school was at least a ten minute drive in the mornings because of the crazy parents and teens like Blade.

So after a death-defying ride that to this day I'm still surprised that cops hadn't stopped him for reckless driving, we made it to school. Everything was fine and dandy until Jerryd found Jamie, "Hey I gotta talk to James for sec, I'll be back and we can talk about arcade night," he ran off after we said sure. They headed into the cafeteria like we were and it looked like they were having a serious discussion.

"What are you saying James?" we heard Jerryd say, "Come on you don't mean this," he had an almost pleading quality to his voice.

"I do mean it, and quit sounding like a pathetic weakling," Jamie said in a harsh tone getting louder, "I've found someone else and he's cuter, smarter, and nowhere near as pathetic as you are,"

I was about to charge him at this point, when Riana pulled me back whispering in my ear, "Something's not right about this, stay calm until we know the whole story and help me keep Blade in check please?" I nodded ahppy to focus my anger on something else.

"James please don't," Jerryd began, "I love you," he whispered this last part.

"Are you serious?" Jamie replied with a snort, "How could anyone love you?" At this point Riana let go of Blade and stormed right up to Jamie and punched him right in the nose with a loud crack that had everyone wince.

"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO HIM LIKE THAT!" screeched Riana, if there was one thing the school had learned of us in the psat was that we were fiercely protective of our own, especially Riana. "HE IS THE MOST KIND CONSIDERATE GENEROUS MAN YOU'LL EVER MEET AND YOU JUST THROW HIM AWAY LIKE AN OLD SOCK?!" After each word as if to empasize her point, she started poking his chest hard.

"Come on Ri, he's not worth it and we have to go to Jerryd, he needs us," Blade was saying soothingly into her ear. But for every two steps he pulled Riana back she went back three. She put up a huge fight.

As we were walking away from Jamie, I thought I heard him whisper, "I've chosen well, they'll fight and hopefully win."


	3. Blade, Riana, and Snoopy?

_**AN: Okay again I don't own anything that sounds familiar. Read and Review please!! It keeps me alive... lol... Tell me how y'all like this chappie!... This chappie is dedicated to my favorite reviewer Mwrowrcat because you leave cool reviews!!.. All of you Read and Enjoy!!. June 16, 2008 so i just had to rewrite this because i didnt like the chapter went.. so i added a couple of things... and now i like the story is flowing now... so reread please and let me know what you think... later!!**_

_**Riana**_

We went looking for Jerryd before the principal could show up and ask us questions as to why Jamie's face was bleeding. It didn't matter to me at that very moment, because Jerryd needed me even more than I needed to worry about the annoying principal. We found Jerryd ten minutes later on the bleachers by the football field staring out into nothingness.

"Of course, the minute that you're single again, you come here to check out the cute guys," Faye said with a smirk that was meant to be comforting. Jerryd looked up at us and smiled sadly.

"Like I ever stopped," that was something I envied Faye for, her ability to help Jerryd whenever he put on his masks. He never showed when he was pain. His father had somehow caused the ability of his to hide his emotions. His father always told him that showing any emotion was a sign of weakness. Faye however could bring him out of his state. Jerryd looked at us and we saw some tears fall from eyes. He wiped them away and another mask came up hiding the pain and even the tears slowed and stopped.

"Jerryd, you checkin' out other guys?" Faye scandalously, "Shame, shame," she waggled her finger at him acting as if she was scolding him. I looked between Faye and Jerryd and saw how she looked at him. Like she was mad at him but ignoring that in order to help and comfort him. Blade just sat there, he was bad at comforting people so he just sat there and tried to look comforting.

"I can't believe Jamie said that to you in front of everyone," Blade said angrily, "Do you want me to beat him up?" Jerryd looked him and chuckled because he knew that was the best he could at comforting people. Beat up the people who caused the pain. Jerryd shook his head no, when he did that I realized that he looked beaten and tired. Watching him and Faye interact I realized that what happened this morning wasn't the only reason why he looked so tired. He was hiding something from us.

"Jerryd, what's wrong?" I blurted before I even thought about it. He looked at me for a second I didn't think he would answer me. He just kind of laughed and shook his head sadly.

"First Faye, now you, Riana listen all of you, I will tell y'all what's going on, but we need to leave here, like now" Jerryd said looking at all of us, "There's something going on that even I have trouble believing," We looked at each other trying to figure out how worried we should be. We continued our silent conversation through looks and small hand gestures trying to find out our next move. After a few minutes, we agreed that our next move should be to skip school and listen to Jerryd's explanation. We each nodded in agreement and told him so. "Okay, lets go," we walked away hoping that no one would notice us missing from our classes. As we walked away, he looked out at the football field, lost in his own world again.

_**Blade**_

As we walked away from the school, we carried on our own conversations about whatever we could come up with. We tried to involve Jerryd in our conversation but he didn't want to join us. He stayed in his own little world, doing whatever it was he did when he was there. Faye had told me of this side of him, but I had never seen it myself before today.

"I'm telling you that Fooly Cooly was a stupid anime, it had no plot, made no sense, and I lost count of the many sexual innuendos that were in there!" I heard Riana say to Faye as they started their usual debate of whether or not Fooly Cooly was worth watching. I chuckled, and I glanced at Jerryd, he had a small smile on his face as he continued watching what was going on between the two.

"That's what made it so funny!" Faye said after each point Riana made about how come it was so bad. "It wasn't completely filled with drama, a lot of comedy, some drama, and it left you with enough questions that it made you wonder what the hell it was all about?" She giggled as she said this. Of course, she would never admit that she giggled. They continued to bicker on and on about the same thing when Jerryd looked at his watch.

"It's time for us to go," he said simply as he turned into a completely different direction. We all looked at each other trying to figure out where he meant us to go. As he walked away from us, we ran to catch up with him, each of asking where are going and why. However, he wouldn't answer us saying 'Just be patient'. We were getting very annoyed by that response.

Therefore, we continued on our trek to some random place that we were supposed to be at soon. Jerryd kept taking random turns, and looking behind his shoulder as if he was afraid, that someone was following us. I wanted to ask what was up, but I knew he wouldn't tell us until he ready, well that and the fact that the girls kept asking him every other five minutes. After a while, he just ignored them trying to keep his mind on whatever he deemed important now.

"Riana, you know that Star Wars sucks right?" I said knowing exactly how she was going to react. Faye would want to watch this blow up and it gave Jerryd a break from the girls. Jerryd sent a grateful look to me, as Riana turned very slowly towards me, almost threateningly slow. I shivered inside because Riana, even though she's my girlfriend, she scared me sometimes.

"What was that comment about Star Wars?" she said in a low voice that seemed to carry. Hell even the buildings seemed to back away from her at that moment.

"Man I should've brought popcorn, because this is going to be entertaining," Faye said as Riana continued to stare at me. I looked at Faye silently pleading for help as I tried to get closer to Jerryd so I wouldn't lose him during this crazy situation I had just created. She just acted as if she hadn't seen my silent plea for help. She's family, and I love her but there are times that I just want to throttle her!

"Well uh Sweetie, Darling, Light of my Life," I began as I somehow ended up closer to Jerryd. He looked at me with a slight smirk, the only sign of life he had since we left the school. I shook my head, of course, he would find entertainment in the fact that I was trying to help him, see if I ever help him again.

"Yes Darling?" she said almost sickeningly sweet. I gulped trying to figure out how exactly I could get out of this crazy situation. I honestly didn't know what to do so I was incredibly glad when Jerryd announced we had arrived, distracting Riana from killing me. She sent a look saying that she would remember this, I shuddered thinking of the things she could do to get back at me for my comment for which I was already regretting.

"So where are we?" asked Faye as she looked around this rather nice looking neighborhood. It looked like Jamie's neighborhood. I shook my head thinking that Jerryd wouldn't take us there. Why would he, he didn't have a reason to be there. Did he? Faye looked at Jerryd worriedly.

"Jerryd, why are we here?" she asked in a soft tone, which is a rarity for her. She was a loud girl and subtlety isn't really her forte. Faye and Jerryd's form of subtlety was that if they were teaching flying, they would just push their student (or victim depending how you looked at it) off of the ledge.

"He needs all of us here," was all Jerryd said. I was getting worried about this because if Faye's reaction was anything to go by then, this was Jamie's home. We looked at each other, wondering if Jerryd had snapped. Jerryd walked over to the door and knocked loudly, and stepped back and waited.

"Hey Jerryd, Jamie said you'd be coming today, come on downstairs, just one question to your friends," said Jamie's father as soon as he opened the door. "Do you like dogs?" Jerryd sent us a look saying to just agree and move on, so we all nodded and smiled.

"Good! Good! Now Jamie should be here in a few minutes and he can explain what's going to you, but for now just go on downstairs, and wait for him to come home," he said as we walked into his home. I shot a look at Jerryd, who shook his head indicating that he would answer the questions later. We followed Bryan King into his home and into his basement with only one comment from Faye.

"Jerryd, if this guy kills us I am so going to come back from the grave and kick your ass all the way to hell." Riana and I chuckled while I silently agreed with Faye's comment. Jerryd chuckled silently.

"I wouldn't do that to you guys yet." When we reached the basement, what we saw was a dog park in the basement. We couldn't believe this, what kind of person had a dog park in their basement? WE looked around in wonder, seeing all kinds of dogs running around, there were even some trees down, which made us all even more curious. Jerryd looked at us all.

"Three little frogs sitting in a row, saying 'Bud. Weis. Er.'" He said smirking at us all. We all just glared at him after we closed our mouths. He just continued to smirk at us as he walked away. We followed him watching him sit down on the ground playing with a puppy. Jerryd looked at us with a small smile.

"It's good to see all of you, hi Jerryd," said a voice from the doorway. We turned to see Jamie, young man with blue eyes and dark colored hair staring at Jerryd with a sort of longing on his face. Jerryd barely acknowledged him.

"Nice to see your nose healed already," Riana commented as he entered the room. He just smiled in return. She glared at him, getting ready to charge at him again.

"Okay before any of attack I need to tell you that public break up scene this morning was necessary." at this Jerryd nodded, " Now look I asked Jerryd to bring you all here so that I can explain something to you. But it night be easier if I showed you what happened last night then I could explain and answer any questions including as to why you all are here." We all of us nodded at this wondering as to how you could show us. At that moment Jamie disappeared and what was in his place was a sleek looking little robot thing that almost reminded me of snoopy. "Snoopy" walked over to this computer-looking thing, and well for lack of a better word plugged his head into the computer.

I looked at Faye and Riana, and they were in the same state as I was, shock. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. We looked at Jerryd and he was staring at the ground rather morosely. He saw me looking at me.

"Watch what he's going to show you, it's worth it"

"Well Snoopy, play on I'm told it's worth it. So prove him right," I told Snoopy/Jamie. He turned his head, nodded, and started playing what he needed to show us and part of me wishes I had never seen it.

_**Jerryd's night before **_

We were walking for what felt like hours; it probably was for only 45 minutes. Every time I asked where were going, he would shush me and tell me we were close and when we arrived, we had to be quiet. I was getting more scared, but I didn't want to show it. I kept looking at him, and it seemed like he was flickering again. I couldn't turn away this time, I pulled him to a stop and whispered, "Wait, I'm not going another step until you tell me what's going on with you first," I frowned at him showing him I was serious. He looked very weary and very old, and I wondered how old he was. It almost felt like he had seen so much and for so long.

"Jerryd, I will tell you, and it's going to get fixed tonight," he sighed looking me in the eye, "But I can't tell you until I show you why you need to fight especially since we're on a time limit," His ice blue eyes filled with so much emotion and age, that I almost gasped in surprise. I nodded, but I desperately wanted answers. I loved him but he starting to scare me. He kept saying stuff like that, how we were on a time limit, and how I needed to fight, fight what? I didn't know. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"James-" I started but he stopped me and kissed me deeply. I was thrown into a whirl passion and love. He was the only who could do this to me and made me lose control. _Oh my gods! Can this man kiss! _I thought wanting more when he pulled away.

"I love that look in your beautiful brown eyes that always remind me of a hawk for some reason," he began," That innocent look that shows how much you trust people, the look that shows how much love you have for me, which is why tonight is killing me to show this to you. I also have to hurt you tomorrow in the only way I know so that you'll be safer from them, I am so sorry," he said holding back tears. I never saw this side of him before, so I just nodded. He seemed to be grieving for our relationship. I wanted to hold him and tell him that it was going to be okay, that we'd figure something out.

"James, why do we have to do this?" I asked pleadingly, "Why do we have to break up?" I looked at him; I saw he had some tears in his eyes. He shook his head no. He motioned that we have to continue walking. He took my hand and we walked towards this street. "James, what are looking for?" I looked at our surroundings. It looked normal, two-story houses, two-car garages, mailboxes, the annoying dog barking in the background, which made me want to shut it up. I couldn't tell what was so different about this place that could tell me why I needed to fight. I still didn't know what I needed to fight.

"We'll sit here, perfect view," he said almost absent-mindedly as he pointed to bench, "Okay, just know that I can't allow you to help right now, at least until I give you and your friends the weapon you need to fight," he told me looking me in the eye with such grave that I had never seen before until now. I was speechless; I had no idea what to say. I sat down on the bench.

"You know we're in plain sight, right?" I look at him seeing a UPS van pass by and a black van parked at the end of the street. I also see another black van parking across the street. All these vans were making me paranoid, and add on the fact that seemed many people were waiting on the street but none of them seemed to be noticing us. That's when I recognized the street we were on. My first boyfriend lived on the same street. "James, what are we doing here? This is where Derek lives." He looked at me shocked. He put his hand on arm, it seemed comforting, but it seemed something else.

"They can't see us, and know that no matter what I can't allow you to help him or his family," he said this matter-of-factly. He looked at me with what seemed like pity in his eyes. "And that our break-up is necessary, it's the only way we can stay safe" he stopped for a second and I noticed that all of the vans had moved closer to the house we were staring at. I had this urge to run toward the house to warn Derek and his family but I realized the full extent of what James had said. I wasn't allowed to help in any way, shape, or form.

"How come they can't see us?" I asked a last ditch effort to gain some information.

"I'll explain later," he said. That was when at least three different people walked up to the front door. They banged (knocking wasn't really the word for it) on the front door and stood on the porch waiting for someone to answer. I was filled with an overwhelming state of fear, I knew that what was about to happen wasn't anything good. I looked at James trying to get his attention, "No, we can't and remember that this is needed for you to have the strength to do what needs to be done," he said to my unasked question. I nodded, trying to keep some control over the fear that was threatening to take over.

"Who's knocking on our door at this hour?" someone yelled from inside. If I was right, then it was Derek's father, Mitch. He opened the door, "Yes, what do you want?" he demanded.

"Mr. Adams?" one of the people said with a silky voice. A voice didn't fill me with comfort. He nodded as an answer to the question. He turned around and nodded to each of the vans. That was when I saw the other two people pushed their way into the house and grab him and force him on his knees, Mr. Adams wasn't big, he actually was quite short and skinny, but he was a fighter so it was quite a shock to see him forced down without much of a fight. Then creatures came out of vans and pushed their way into the house and then I head screams, shouts, and things breaking. I started to run towards the house when James grabbed me.

"No, this family is lost like the others," he whispered as his arms crossed over my chest and he held me where I was.

"But he has a little sister!" I yelled trying to fight him. "Dee's not even five years old! We need to help them!" That was I realized that there were tears coming out of my eyes. I wanted to fight but I wasn't allowed. I was being held back by the man I loved and I couldn't fight against his grip. I looked away, all I could think of was how Derek and I were still friends. How sometimes when no one else was available, they would ask me to watch Dee for them. She was like another sister for me. How Derek would still hang out with me even after we broke up, how we would still argue about who was a better chess player, and how which anime was better; Mirage of Blaze or Trigun, I would always argue Mirage of Blaze was better.

There were tears coming out of my eyes I clenched my eyes shut, I couldn't show any weakness not in front of James, not now. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the screams and yell out of my head. I would've done anything to get the screams of Derek's family out of my head. I started to sob uncontrollably, shaking I fell to the ground on my knees. "Why? James, why me?" I kept asking him, "Why couldn't I help them? Whats going on here James?" The worst thing about the whole thing was when silence overtook the house. James held me close to him, whispering meaningless things to me, I think he was trying to comfort me but I don't really remember the next thirty minutes after that.

When I calmed down, I felt rage fill me, a rage that I had never felt before, a rage that if released it could've destroyed everything around me. This rage at this moment was directed towards James, he must've realized this, "Now Jerryd, before you lose control, just wait and let me explain everything," I wanted to hurt James for saying that. "Remember what asked of you earlier tonight please, Jerryd," I remembered what he said. _Remember that no matter what I show you and what you hear, that I love you_. It took everything I had not too hurt him.

"Okay, I'm giving you one minute to explain everything about what the hell is going here," I said coldly glaring at him making him feel the full extent of my anger through a glare. He actually had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"Okay so one minute, here goes: Earth is being invaded by aliens."


	4. Explanations and Names

**_AN:_** Here's the next chapter!!.. i dont own anything yet.. im trying though.. anyways read and review... please.. i like reviews... i'm not sure when the next update is coming up.. but i'll try to post as soon as possible!!.. later!! oh by the way if anyone wants to beta this for me.. just let me and we can talk some more about this.. later!!

**_Jerryd_**

James had changed back to the form I knew him as. I was actually surprised that they hadn't asked about what James was. I stood there watching my friends' reaction to the news that Earth was being invaded. I knew that they were in the same place I was last night, disbelief, shock, but I wasn't sure if they would accept it and join the fight. That was the reason why James and I broke up; we couldn't risk the yeerks finding out that about James's biggest secret. He wasn't human, he was an android called a Chee. I couldn't believe this, the guy I had fallen in love with wasn't even human!

"You have got to be kidding me!" Faye said in her usual blunt manner, she was looking at me trying to figure out if this was some elaborate joke. I couldn't look at her, not at any of them. I stood there looking at the ground, anywhere but them. I couldn't believe it myself. Earth was being invaded by alien slugs! Who knew slugs could be so dangerous? I knew what I was going to do. I had a family to fight for; they needed protection from the brain-invading slugs that might actually win. However, I will do everything in my power to fight and pray that we win by some mere miracle.

"You mean that there's a race of alien slugs called the yeerks invading Earth, and you want us to stop them?" Riana clarified trying to wrap her mind around this fact. James wanted me to get them involved, but I told him it was up to them, I wasn't going to force them into helping me fight this war.

"Yeah that pretty much sums it up," James replied. I looked at him, knowing that I was never going to be with him while this war was going on. I sighed and I watched my friends barrage James with questions for about five minutes before Faye asked the important question that James wouldn't answer last night, he asked me to wait until today.

"How are we supposed to fight off an entire race of brain-invading slugs?" she asked finally accepting what James was telling her was the truth. Riana and Blade looked at James both nodding slightly. I looked at James, curious as to his answer to this question.

"Well that's a long story, so you might want to sit down and let me answer question at the end, okay?" he said to us. We each nodded as we sat down. I found myself thinking absurdly, _Yay! __Story time! Story time! _James took a deep breath, I wanted him to explain what he was to my friends but I wasn't sure if he would yet. He looked at me with a sort of longing on his face.

"Well explain the whole story, James" I told him. He smirked a bit then he started the story of the Andalites, Hork-bajir, and the Yeerks. I couldn't believe the story he was telling us, but it made some sense and it was a tragic ending for the Hork-bajir.

"A while back these Andalites had helped this alien race, Yeerks. The Yeerks actually when they aren't in a host, they are blind, deaf, and they are helpless. So once they realized they could take over a host and see, hear, and speak, well they didn't want to let that go," He took a breath not that he needed it, I guess out of habit. "So they took over this race of creatures called the Gedds. Well they wanted better hosts, so they took over the Andalite post on their home world, leaving no survivors. When the Andalites found out what was going on, it was too late, the Yeerks had declared war, and they started taking over other planets, eventually taking the Hork-bajir home world." A brief look of sadness came over his features.

"Well, the Hork-bajir are an arboreal race, usually very passive despite their appearance," At this point, he showed us a picture of what I can only assume at the time was a Hork-bajir. It had a bird-like head, spikes all over its body, dinosaur-like feet, they had a relatively human-shaped body. You know, head, arms, shoulders, torso, and legs. They also had reptilian skin. In other words, you wouldn't want to fight one of these with out a weapon, because they could slice you up ten times before you could even blink. "They eat the bark off of trees, at least they were passive and living in trees not a care in the universe until the Yeerks came, they took over the Hork-bajir race. The Yeerks ended up using them as foot soldiers against the Andalites, and the Andalites basically destroyed the Hork-bajir world in order to win."

"What the hell? These are supposed to be the good guys?" Faye asked in shock and anger. She couldn't stand when pacifists were attacked for no reason. A trait got her suspended many times. James nodded to her reaction, obviously not liking it at all.

"Well there were some survivors of the Hork-bajir race, but they are all controllers now," James said sadly. "There are two more races of aliens you have to watch out for, the Taxxons and the Leerans, the Leerans are a new type of host and they are thought to be psychic, other than that there's not much I know of them. Then there's the Taxxons, think of giant centipedes that will devour anything, especially if they smell its blood." James shudder after this before continuing, "The Taxxons are all voluntary hosts, meaning they submitted to this life, the Leerans are an unknown, and now the Yeerks are targeting humans," We looked at each other.

"Why?" I asked feeling that my friends weren't going to ask the question because the answer scared them. He looked at me, surprised I had asked the question. I sent a small glare at him, letting him know not to underestimate me.

"Because there are over six billion potential hosts for the Yeerks to take over," James said softly. We looked at each other in shock when our original question came back to us.

"How are we supposed to fight off an entire alien race?" Blade asked James.

"Well that's where you come in, I have a plan, thanks to the Andalites I have developed something that should work but since the Chee are pacifists we can't fight in this war, but that programming didn't stop us from developing things that could be used as a weapon." James said taking a breath. He was about to begin when Faye interrupted him.

"Excuse me, but the 'Chi'? Isn't that some sort of energy thingamabob in eastern philosophy?" she asked still trying to wrap her mind around some of this. James chuckled realizing he forgot to explain what he was to the rest of the class. I laid down on the ground tired and not really wanting to hear about my boyfriend isn't human, but a robot, no sorry an android. I wasn't sure what the difference was, and I'm still not but hey, that's what they're called.

"The Chee are a race of pacifistic androids, they were created by a race of aliens called the Pemalites, who were destroyed the survivors came to Earth for sanctuary. However, they didn't survive so we put their essence in what you call dogs. So we help save humans, because they take of dogs, who are what's left of our masters." He finished sheepishly. We nodded acting as if we actually understood what he meant. "Anyways. The Andalites had created this cube, that whoever touches it, they gain this ability to change into animal that they touch for up to two hours at a time. Well, I replicated the same kind of technology, however none of us can use it, so I chose you four to fight this war if you choose to, I'm leaving that up to you." He looked at us wanting us to answer now. I looked at my friends and they were also trying to decide as well what they should do. I sighed and stood up.

"What do I have to do to gain this power?" I asked James who smiled at me. I nodded back towards him and looked at my friends silently pleading them to make a decision.

"Like I'm going to let Jerryd have all of the fun, like my cowardly cousin over there," Faye said smirking as she stood by me. Blade stood up and joined us as he stuck his tongue out at Faye.

"Well somebody's gotta make sure you three don't kill yourselves," Riana said as she joined us. "But I want to name us," She said as her demand.

"Who said you got to name us?" Faye asked already getting herself ready for a fight. Blade and I snickered as we watched them start their debate.

"Okay how about we listen to Riana's name for us then we can vote," I said silencing them both. Faye agreed and Riana told us her name for us.

"How about the Shapeshifters?" she said looking at us. We all looked at each other trying to decide if we liked it or not. "You know like that native amercan superstition about humans who change into an animal at will?" We all agreed and looked at James.

"The Yeerks aren't going to know what hit them," Faye said smirking. Blade laughed, Riana looked a bit apprehensive but ready to fight.

"Well give us our power, and we'll start on our nice little war you've cooked up for us," I said smirking at James.


	5. Reactions and Fears

_**AN: Woot!! another update!!... i'm doing good for the moment... same warning applies.. dont know when the next chapter gets uploaded... and i dont own anything... which sucks.. well here ya go!!.. review please!!.. id like to know if im doing something right.. or wrong.. heck id even accept bad reviews.. just make sure you give some suggestions as to how i could make this better.. enjoy!!...**_

_**Riana**_

On our way home that night, I couldn't believe what we had just agreed to. We just decided to fight a war we had no idea how to fight, with a weapon that we were getting the next day. Part of me was afraid of going through with this, maybe if I had just walked out; I wouldn't be in this mess. I was panicking and there was no way I could tell my family and ask them for their advice, because if I did then I'd be running the risk of selling out my friends and the Chee. I had to face this decision alone, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it anymore.

My friends and I parted ways because I was the one that lived the closest to Jamie. What if I died? Who would tell my family? Could they tell my family? What if I was caught and forced to become a host? These were the questions that were running through my mind that entire night. I didn't want to be involved anymore in this war, but if I didn't become involved then what if my friends failed because I wasn't there to help them? What if my family was taken captive and I couldn't save them because I didn't have the power to help them? A thousand 'what-ifs' and no answer, that's what my mind was filled with and it scared me a lot.

"Hey dear, your father's making lasagna for dinner tonight so wash up and set the table please," my mom asked me. Jamie had told us that some of the Chee had taken our place at school while we were gone. It kept us from being exposed. I nodded to my mother as I walked to the bathroom. That was another thing I had to worry about; how could I keep a secret like the existence of the Chee? In short, I was freaking out about this war, and the fact that my friends (who I might as well have grown up with) have all decided to join and fight this crazy war.

I set the table, put on a fake smile, and acted as if everything was okay during dinner. I think my parents suspected something but I just told them that I wasn't feeling well that night. Mom and Dad checked on me that night before I went to sleep. My sister came in later that night.

"So what's going on? You're acting like the world's coming to an end," Ami said as she jumped on my bed. She was two years younger then me but she sometimes acted as if she was actually older. The fact that she was few inches taller than me didn't help matters much either.

"Who knows? That might actually happen tomorrow, then I won't have to go to school," I replied trying not to blurt out what was really bothering me. She looked at me, trying to see if I was holding something back. "Don't worry about me, I just had a tiring day, so I'm going to get some sleep. Okay?" She nodded and walked out after letting me that I could always talk to her if I needed to. I turned over and stared out the window, realizing that no matter what I would fight, if nothing else to protect Ami. I hoped that I wouldn't die in this attempt to save the world. I fell asleep soon after she left, and fell into dark dreams of death destruction and begging for death.

_**Blade**_

I walked into the apartment that I lived with my family. I looked at the couch and there was my mom, who was passed out with a bottle of Jack Daniels by her. I sighed and cleaned up around her careful not to wake her. My father left us a few days ago and Mom was having trouble dealing with it. I hadn't told anyone yet, they didn't need to know. My older brother, Arrow was at work hopefully. Yeah my family likes weapons, I was surprised that my family didn't have kid named Gun.

"Blade, honey is that you?" I heard my mother whisper. I turned around and saw her looking at me with tears in her eyes. I nodded and she gestured for me to come closer to her. When I moved closer to her, she pulled me into a hug. "You look so much like your father, he said he was coming back soon. He told me it was just another business trip, he has a lot of those."

"Mom," I started, I didn't want to tell her he wasn't coming back. But she needed to hear it, so that she could do what needed to be done. I closed my eyes, thinking of how I was going to tell her. I also wanted to tell her that I had joined in a fight to save the world but I remembered I couldn't it would put her danger. For the first time in a long time, I wanted my mom to protect me. "Dad's not going to be here for a while." I finished feeling happy that I hadn't broken her fantasy yet.

"I know dear, I'm going to go to bed, I love you, Blade," she stood up and almost lost her balance. I caught her before she fell down. I led her to her bedroom, tucking her in, hoping that tomorrow she'll come back to reality. I finished cleaning the living room and ate some leftover pizza from the night before. I went to my room and tried to work on some homework, but I kept going back to the possibility that I might die in this war.

Taxxons, Hork-bajir, Andalites, Yeerks just to name a few aliens that we might be going up against. I couldn't believe it. Aliens had just proven to exist to me and my friends and a race of slugs are taking over the world. There's also androids! Jerryd's ex-boyfriend is one and he chose us to fight this crappy war!

We didn't anything about fighting a war! How could Jamie expect us to fight! But if we didn't, then our family and friends would all be taken. Everything will be lost, and it might be because we didn't fight. Faye wouldn't forgive me if backed out now, well maybe she would there's honestly no telling when it came to her.

"Hey anyone awake!" I heard my older brother yell as he walked into the apartment. I took a deep breath and walked out to hang out with him. He saw me and smiled.

"Well I was asleep but then I heard your bellowing and smelled you so I guessed you were home." He chuckled and we talked some more that night about many things, and for the last time for a long time, I forgot about the war.

**_Faye_**

I went with Jerryd as we walked into his home. Everyone was asleep when we entered, so we went straight to his room where found a note.

_Jerryd,_

_There's some food for you and don't worry there's enough in case you bring your friends over. Good night dear, sweet dreams. Love ya muh!_

_Mommy Dearest_

I smiled as I read over his shoulder. "Love ya muh?" Jerryd just chuckled and said it was a family joke. I nodded and we raided the kitchen grabbing the food, which was leftover spaghetti, Jerryd's mom couldn't stand cooking but she did once in a great while. When we got done eating, we did some homework.

"How long did you know about Jamie?" I asked bluntly surprising Jerryd. He looked at me, with some pain in his face. I didn't want him in pain, but I was just dying to know.

"Since last night, he told me a lot, everything else I learned with the rest of you." He said simply. He looked at the floor. "I don't know what to do, Faye, I mean if we do this then what am I going to do if we go to our deaths?" I nodded, I was thinking the same things.

"We go down fighting, hopefully killing a lot of them." I replied smartly. It was in that moment, that I knew who was going to end up being the leader of our little team. Riana might know what to do in battle but she would hesitate at the wrong moment, Blade and I are more of the go in and kill everything on sight. Blade was good at strategy but he needed everything to go according to plan and I was more of the improvise and hope everything goes all right, and if all else fails, kill every one of your enemies. However, Jerryd had enough of all of us in him to be able to know what to do and when to do it. He wouldn't hesitate at the wrong moment, he would lead us to the best of abilities and keep our best interests at heart. I had faith in that much.

"Faye, can we do this? Can we win against an entire empire of aliens?" he asked sounding so young and scared. I knew what to say to him in order for him to have th confidence to fight.

"Jerryd," I began softly as I looked into his eyes. "It's an alien of slugs, of course we can kick their asses!" He chuckled as I continued, "Besides if we lost do you have any idea how embarrassing it would be to tell our ancestors, some of whom probably fought in some wars, that we got our asses kicked by egotistical slugs,"

"Oh yeah I can just see it, 'Oh hi Grandpa, it's so good to see you again. Yeah I'm dead, I died in a war. It was against annoying slugs.'" We started laughing as he finished.

"But seriously Jerryd, we will win, no matter what." He nodded and our conversation turned to other things, but I could tell that we both were thinking of the upcoming war.


	6. The Chee's cube

**_AN: Okay... here comes my twist on the morphing cube and gaining powers... let me know what you think of it.. please!!.. i was planning on this twist for a while now.. but i didn't know how to do it.. and this was the best thing i could come up with.. and i was originally planning on giving them their first morphs in this chapter but i figured i had finally figured out a decent stopping place... so read and review please!!... hope you enjoy!! on with the story!!_**

**_Jerryd_**

Faye ended up staying the night; it was something that happened sometimes. Her mom wasn't comfortable with it at first, but when she realized my feeling for Faye were completely platonic she was all kinds of happy for it. We stayed up and talked about many things, avoiding the subject of the war that was coming up.

"Jerryd! Come on! Wake up!" I heard as I started feeling my face getting wet, and the ground moving. I tried to get up but I felt a weight on me. I tried to push the weight off of me but I was failing miserably.

"Get this heavy thing off me!" I yelled just as I was gaining use of my brain. I realized what was on me, when I heard an indignant yell. "Damn," I muttered realizing the heavy thing was Faye, and no one insults Faye even if you are just waking up. I opened my eyes just in time to feel cold water hit my face. I sat up spluttering and grumbling. I looked at Faye and saw her just laughing at the fact that she had just dumped a glass of ice of cold water on my face. I glared at Faye and grumbled, "What's going on? We don't have school today, thank God," She looked at me shocked that I had forgotten something.

"We have that thing with Jamie at the zoo," she said rather pointedly. I remembered then everything that had happened over the past few days, and then I felt the weariness and the worry start to creep back in. I nodded and got up and changed into a different shirt, leaving the same pair of jeans on. No matter how comfortable I felt around Faye there was no way I was going to completely change my outfit in front of her. She just chuckled knowing why I just my shirt and not my jeans. Every one of my friends knew I couldn't stand wearing dirty clothes.

"You know part of me still can't believe that this is going on, I mean does anyone know long it has been?" She was just making conversation about the war without actually talking about the war. We continued discussing things like this, for about another hour when we realized we were running late. We ran out of the trailer telling Mom that we were going to the zoo with some friends, and we'll grab something to eat later on. She practically threw some money into our hands and told us see you later as we charged on out of there. We walked as fast as we could to Jamie's house hoping that they didn't leave without us.

**_Riana_**

Blade and I were in the basement of Jamie's house, Blade was grumbling about how it's too early for getting ready to fight a war against annoying slugs. I was playing with a puppy, that looked to be a mix of an English Springer and Golden Retriever but I could never be too sure. My knowledge of dog breeds is limited which depresses my mom considering she's interested in breeding show dogs. For some reason she always comes up to me and tries to tell me of some new thing, she learned about some kind of breed of dog. Like the other day, she told me that dachshunds (you know weenie dogs?) were bred to go after I think badgers and other creatures that lived in burrows. At least I think that's what she told me.

"Damn Jerryd, he wants us to get here as soon as possible and he doesn't even show up on time, I bet it's Faye's fault. You know how much Jerryd hates to be late to anything, even if it's to his own execution." I smiled at this last comment, knowing it might actually be true. He smiled at me, making the butterflies make their latest appearance. I continued playing with the puppy and ignored Blade's grumbling the rest of the time while we waited on Faye and Jerryd. Jamie came in, looking at us curiously.

"Hey Jamie," I said glaring at him. I still hadn't forgiven him for the break up scene at school, humiliating Jerryd. He looked at me sheepishly and nodded his head toward me. Blade saw this and smirked, I knew he hadn't forgiven Jamie either, even though it was necessary.

"Where's Jerryd and Faye?" Jamie asked trying to make conversation. Blade shrugged. I noticed his brown hair had gotten lighter in the past few days, and his gray eyes had started to hold a certain sadness and pain. I would've thought that the upcoming war was the cause of it, but I had noticed that he had gotten quieter before we found out about the war. I was starting to get worried, what if he couldn't handle the war because there was something going in his life that he hadn't told us yet? Jamie walked out, presumably to wait for Jerryd and Faye. I walked over to Blade and held his hand as I sat down next to him. "What's going on, Blade?" He looked at me; I could tell he was struggling with the decision of whether or not to tell me.

"Dad left us a few days ago, and Mom's having a hard time to dealing with it. She keeps saying that he's on a business trip and that he'll be back in a few days." Blade told me. I was shocked I never thought that His father would do that. I also remembered Blade telling me that his mother was a recovering alcoholic. I knew how she was dealing with this, I held him as tears started to fall from his eyes. He was crying for the loss of his family, and that was something I could never understand and it saddened me. At least I hoped I never had to understand, but with the war coming up, I might understand sooner than I thought.

I heard voices upstairs and knew that the missing two had arrived. Part of me wondered what their excuse was this time. I realized then, that this was reality; we were going to be fighting a war that we had very little understanding about, a war with one of us playing general. We could actually die from this, and I'm not even sure if anyone would even know. We couldn't tell anyone about this war. I was afraid, fear was an emotion I had a lot of experience with but that didn't mean I had to like it. I also knew that unless things at home got better for Blade, then he might not be able to handle it.

"Blade, you don't have to join us," I said to him trying to convince him to back out. Because if he backed out now then he could stay home with his family, who needed him right now. He looked at me in shock, then with some suspicion.

"Ri, have you been hanging out at The Sharing?" he asked softly. I jumped back, hurt. I couldn't believe that he asked me that. Did he not trust me?

"What makes you think that, Blade?"

"Because you're trying to talk me out this, Riana, and you should know that I would never back out of this war," The look on his face softened then. I guess he realized he that I wasn't a controller. I nodded understanding his decision, family was the reason he did this, and family's the reason that he's going to continue this war. Jerryd came down the stairs at that moment.

"Are you two ready or do you need some more time for yourselves?" he asked. I looked at him and said that we were ready. "All right well guys and gals, lets get on outta here and head to the zoo, so we can climb on in with some animals!" he said with forced enthusiasm. At least, I think it was forced; there were times I could never tell with him.

"Come on love birds! Quit sucking face and lets get going!" I felt myself blush at Faye's words. Jerryd just shook his head and chuckled a bit, while Blade glared at him. Jerryd noticed this and smiled a tiny bit.

"Come on, you gotta admit it was funny," he said to Blade. Blade if anything just intensified his glare, making Jerryd just smirk even more.

"Guys, let's just go before she says something that will embarrass us all," I said hoping to prevent exactly that from happening.

"Embarrass me? Riana, you forget it takes a lot to embarrass me," Jerryd said to me. We walked upstairs and there was Faye looking very saddened by something.

"What's wrong, Faye?" I asked her. She looked at me and smiled just a tiny bit.

"I didn't get to yell my threesome comment," she said like a child hat had lost their favorite toy. I felt myself become even redder by the mere implications of that comment. Faye saw my face and laughed loudly. I tried to send a glare at her, but found I couldn't because whenever she laughs like that it usually causes me to laugh.

"Come on, you know you wanna laugh," Faye said slyly. I tried to glare at her again. Then she tackled me and started tickling me.

"Ah! Faye! Stop it!" I was saying in between laughter. Then all hope was lost then I started laughing and I couldn't I was even crying by the time she stopped. I was still laughing as I tried to glare at Jerryd. He was just laughing t my predicament as well. He noticed me trying to glare at him, then he tried to regain his composure.

"Faye, you need to quit doing that, all right people let's get a move on," Jerryd said snorting a bit from trying to contain his laughter. I sent a full-fledged glare at him making him cringe just a bit.

"Wait I need to give you your power," Jamie said as we tried to run out the house.

"Well give it to us," Blade said calmly. We all nodded at this.

"I hid it in the car," Jamie said leading us to the car. We followed tentatively afraid of being caught doing what we were doing. We huddled around the trunk of his car. "Don't worry they won't see what we're doing," he assured us as we relaxed a bit.

"So what do we do?" I asked looking at the grayish blue cube he brought out.

"This isn't exactly like the Andalite's cube, because I had to change a few components because the technology we had was too advanced for the components needed," Jamie said sheepishly.

"Will that change anything?" Jerryd asked out of concern.

"It shouldn't but honestly I don't know, I'm pretty sure it works, but I could be wrong, and if I am," he paused. It looked like he was trying to decide something, "How about we cross that bridge if we come to it, okay?" We nodded curious about what he almost told us but decided it wasn't worth it.

"So as Riana asked, what do we do?" Faye said to Jamie. He looked at us realizing that he hadn't explained it yet.

"Just place your hand on one side of the cube, it should do the rest," he said to us. We followed his directions. A few seconds nothing happened then at first I felt a tingle run through my arm then the next thing I knew an electric shock ran through my arm making me give a short scream in pain. I fell to my knees part of me trying to pull my arm away but failing I looked around and noticed that my friends were in the same state as I was and Jamie looked at us in shock and despair. The feeling ended abruptly, we were all on the ground panting and trying to stop the tears from falling out of our eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Jerryd hissed at Jamie. He glaring at him demanding an answer now. Jamie shook his head saying he didn't know, it shouldn't have happened that way. Then I felt a headache threatening to take over. I shook my head to clear it. _I can't believe I cried._ I heard a voice say from around me. _Damn, as soon as I can stand up I am going to beat the crap out of Jamie, I don't give damn if it'll hurt me more than it hurts him. _I heard Faye mutter.

"Faye calm down, you can tell from Jamie's face that he didn't mean for this to happen," I whispered to her. She looked at me in shock.

"I'm okay," she said defensively.

"No you're not, you were just saying how you were going to beat the crap out of Jamie, even if it hurt you more than it hurt him," I told her trying to calm her down. The shocked look on her face intensified.

"I didn't say that, Riana," she whispered. I nodded trying to argue with her when she interrupted me. "I thought it, yes but I didn't say it."

"What?"

"Goddam it!" I turned around and saw Jerryd literally pounding the pavement with his fist. He looked at Jamie, then pounced on him trying to beat him up. Jamie was trying to hold him off.

"Jerryd! Get off of Jamie!" Faye said as she raised a hand to him, Jerryd went flying through the air and hit a telephone pole. I gasped trying to run towards him.

"Riana! Look out!" I turned around and saw a car heading towards me, I froze in fear. That was when I saw the tires completely melt, which slowed the car down enough for me jump out of the way. I looked over and saw Blade staring at his hand in shock.

"Jamie, what the hell is going on?" I demand as Faye ran over to Jerryd, crying, apologizing for whatever she did.

"I think that I made the morphing cube a little bit more advanced, than just absorbing DNA," he said quietly. Then I asked the question that we were all wondering.

"Does it still give us the ability to morph?"

.


	7. Uncomfortable conversations

**_AN: Okay I know it has been forever since my last update.. and i apologize profusely!! but i hhad trouble writing this chapter out and it still didnt come out the way i wanted it to.. but it also wrote itself out... oh adn theres the fact that my muse ran away for a while there.. but i got it back!! ha ha!! and there it goes running away again... damn!!.. anyway.. i need help with this fic!! reviews would help me alot!!.. i would appreciate reviews!!... il give the first three reviewers of this chapter a dozen cookies!!... i dont when the next update is going to be.. but ill try to make it before thanksgiving... i hope... anyways thanks to the reviewers of this fic that ive already had... hopefully youre still reading it... and on with the story!!... later!! _**

**_Blade_**

I was staring at my hands, not believing at the fire that had come out of them. We at the hospital in the waiting room, each of us lost in our own thoughts. At the same time, we were all worried about Jerryd. He hadn't woken up yet. It's been a few hours since we had tried to gain our powers, "tried" being the operative word. I glanced up at Faye, it sounded like she was muttering about how she didn't mean to do it. Riana was cowering in the corner every time the waiting room was empty, she had her hands to head and begging for the whispers to stop, and Jamie wasn't with us at that point. He said it was because he couldn't risk being exposed by the Yeerks, but that he would check in with us as soon as he could. I stood up and walked over to Faye, keeping my hands closed.

"Faye?" I whispered. She looked at me; I was shocked because there were tears in her eyes.

"I didn't mean to, I was just trying to get him away from Jamie,"

"I know, Faye, but listen he'll be okay, he'll wake up and take one look at you and tell you how hellish you look right now," she chuckled at that. I smiled, it seemed like the right thing to say. I wasn't for sure. I didn't know what to do at this point. I was worried that I might burn someone if I opened my hands. I didn't want to get closer to Riana in case I burned her. I almost did, when that car almost hit her.

"Blade, you're shaking, what happened?" Arrow said as he ran into the waiting room. I tried to move away from him, but Arrow grabbed and hugged him. "When I heard that all of you were in the hospital I came over as soon as I could," he then turned and hugged Faye who cringed. Faye looked at me, silently asking me what we tell him. After all, we couldn't tell him the truth. I shrugged confused as to what we should tell him myself.

"We were getting out to the car, when Jerryd fell and rolled into the street, I ran out to check on him when this car almost ran me over, if the tire hadn't done whatever it did I would've been hit," Riana whispered calmly, keeping her head down as she tried to control her tears a little more. She had her hands to the floor; she looked a little bit calmer now. Arrow nodded at the story believing it completely.

"Faye are you all right?" he asked sincerely. Arrow and Faye didn't really get along, but they had their own understanding.

"I'll be fine" she turned to look at me, "We'll need to work on that project later, and find out what went wrong with it," I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Jerryd's mom had come in at that exact moment.

"What happened? Is everyone okay?" she asked frantically. Riana told her the same story she told Arrow. She looked at Riana suspiciously before nodding her head. "Has the doctor told you anything yet?" We shook our heads; the doctor had only told s that he could tell only family about his condition. She nodded and headed out the door intent on finding a doctor at any cost.

_**Jerryd**_

"God, could this be anymore cliché?" I asked no one in particular as I woke up in a white room. I stood up slowly taking everything in, also getting annoyed because there wasn't anybody else in the room. I walked around a bit waiting for what seemed like forever before he came. Some strange old guy, that didn't seem quite human. He actually kind of reminded me of Gandalf or maybe Dumbledore, I snickered at the thought. Honestly, I didn't feel threatened by him but I wasn't going to take any chances.

"Well, I must honestly say that this is unexpected," he said in a kind voice.

"What?" I asked merely for the sake of asking. I had a feeling he was about to tell me something either extremely profound or incredibly annoying and vague. I hoped it was the former.

"Well, you and your friends being chosen for this war," he began almost sadly but at the same time almost happy. "You and your friends almost didn't register as people who would even try to save the world," He paused waiting to see my reaction. I gestured for him to go on before I started with the yelling. He nodded before he started again, "I was surprised to see a completely different ending opening up simply because you four were chosen by an android!" he chuckled a bit.

"What do you mean when you didn't choose us?" I asked during his small pause. He looked at me surprised that I had spoken.

"Usually the first question anyone asks me is 'who am I?" he said simply as he looked at me. I noticed that he didn't answer my question; I sat there not responding waiting for him to answer my question. I was curious as to his identity, but I figured he would tell me eventually, unless he's like Rumpelstiltskin, which I hoped he wasn't. "In case you were wondering, people call me Ellimist," I raised an eyebrow thinking, _Kind of an odd name but who am I to say anything about it?_

"And then there's the fact that you didn't just get morphing abilities but some others as well! I simply could not believe it!" He laughed at that. I was losing patience with the fact that he wasn't answering my question, but I wasn't going to allow myself to repeat myself unless he tried to run off course and completely forget about my question. "All because one Chee had fallen in love with one human, that is why this path opened up. I'm curious to see where you will take this new team of human resitance against the Yeerks."

"Again, I ask 'What do you mean when you said you didn't choose us?" I said with a bit of venom in my voice. He looked at me for a little while almost as if he was studying me. He chucked a bit before he started walking away. "Hey! You don't get to walk away like that just yet!" I yelled as I started chasing him before I realized that he could poof on out of here if he wanted.

"I'm not leaving yet, I just felt like walking for a bit, you humans take this simple action for granted," he said simply, again not answering my question. I wanted to smack him upside the head and tell him to answer my damn question. But I had this feeling that wouldn't be the right way to continue this conversation.

"All right, so what-" I began as he interrupted me.

"You and your friends won't be able to figure out your other abilities without some help, so here is my advice: Meditate and focus on exactly what you want, and everything else should figure itself out." He said simply yet again. He turned away and started to fade away.

"Wait! You still haven't answered my question!" I yelled at him before he was completely gone.

"I know, and I can't give you an answer yet, there some people you have to meet first before I can give anything that resembles an answer to that question," he replied before he was gone. I looked at the spot where he used to be shocked and annoyed that he didn't really give me much of anything to work with. I turned around and sat down on the ground and grumbled for a bit while I tried to recap the strange conversation I just had.

"Okay so he didn't answer my question, however he did answer some questions that I might have whenever I get back home, which actually brings the question of: Where the hell am I?"

"_Jerryd, honey, wake up soon because I can't stand to see you like this," _I looked up when I heard my mother's voice come from above me.

"Well, will you look at that my Mom really is God. Oh damn there's going to be no shutting her up now," I said as I relished in the feeling of being loved. That was when I remembered what he said before he left. "Okay, I just need to meditate and focus on what I want and everything else should work out from there. I hope." I crossed my legs and started taking deep breaths like I had seen on those TV shows where they showed someone meditating. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right but I had to try something. I visualized where I wanted to be: with my friends and family, and hoped with everything that I was that I would be there soon.

_**Riana**_

I sat in Jerryd's room, trying to block out the whispers that were invading my mind much more heavily now. Blade was the first that came in after Jerryd's mother, we had been trading time with him and his mother. His mother was whispering small little things to him, encouraging him to wake up. I didn't hear her voice these things, I heard them right before she said them. I shook my head, begging the Higher Powers to block these thoughts out of my head. I heard the door open, I looked up at the nurse who walked in.

"How is he doing?" she said as she smoothed down the sheets. That was when I noticed that there were two mind in this woman's head. I stared at her very intently trying to see if I could focus my 'radar' on her, but I couldn't.

"No change, do we know when he's going to wake up?" Jerryd's mom asked worriedly. The nurse shook her head sympathetically as she walked out of the room. I realized what I had just felt, a mind of a Controller! It was the only that made sense, unless the nurse was suffering from split-personality disorder. I wondered briefly if it was still split-personality disorder if there was actually another being in your head controlling everything you said and did.

"Riana, are you okay?" Mommy Dearest asked me. I nodded mutely, trying to figure out how come I couldn't pinpoint on the nurse's thoughts, but yet when I'm not trying to focus on somebody in particular I get everyone and their dog's thoughts running through my head, causing a major migraine that makes me want to curl up and die from the amount of thoughts.

That was when I noticed that while I was focused on the Nurse Controller's thoughts all other thoughts faded away to dull roar. I figured I just had to focus on certain person's thoughts for a while and the explosion of thoughts would a become a small roar, I hoped it worked because I thought I was going to go insane from the pain.

"I'm going back to the waiting room and let someone else in here for a while," I tell her as she nods slightly, making me wonder if she actually heard me. I walk toward the waiting room focusing on the people I passed by. It was hard because every time I didn't find someone to focus on fast enough, the minds of everyone would crash into me making me almost scream from the pain.

"Hey Ri," Blade said as I walked in. I nodded to him noticing that my parents had arrived during the time I was with Jerryd and his mother.

"Hey Mom, Dad" I say with as much strength I could manage. They hugged me as they told they came to bring me home. I nodded and left with them, trying to focus on Dad's thoughts while we left. I hoped tomorrow would bring better news as we headed home.


	8. New conversations and Visions

**_AN: so i finally beat my muse into submission and finally got another chappie out to ya.. hope you like... read and review tell me what you like or dont like.. but if you dont like it then tell me if theres a way i can make it better without ruining the story.. later!!_**

**_Jerryd_**

I was still focusing on my mother's voice when I heard a small cough behind me. I turned around to ask the old guy what I was doing wrong. It turned out that it wasn't the old man it was something else.

"Are you related to California Raisins?" I asked before I could stop myself. He glared at me making me think of the phrase _if looks could kill._ "Gees, calm down it was just a question, granted a stupid one, but nothing to get into a hissy fit over."

"If you are quite done," he said sharply stopping me in mid-babble. I glared at him for interrupting me, but gestured for him to continue.

"I mean look at you, it's like Jurassic Park had a three-way with a California Raisin and a human," at least letting him continue was my original intention. He looked confused for a second.

"What? How come you can't be like those sanctimonious little brats that the meddling Ellimist chose?" He muttered the last part under his breath making me wonder if I was meant to hear it, probably not. I decided to ask the more pertinent question to this freakazoid.

"So who are you? Or _what _are you?" He smiled for the first time in the confrontation which sent shivers up my spine, but I didn't think it would be good to show him that. He disappeared; when I turned around there he was a good two inches from my face I fell back trying to get away from him. He started laughing when I fell down. I glared at him, because it was the only response I could think of.

"My Master, the Great and Compassionate Crayak, has sent me to you," I raised an eyebrow at this proclamation. I decided that I since I was still on the ground then I might as well get comfortable so I sat Indian-style. I motioned for him to continue his sermon on "The Great and Compassionate Crayak."

"He has decided to allow you and your friends the great opportunity to join him in his campaign," I didn't say anything waiting for the catch. "All you need to do is help us defeat the Ellimist's little chosen few." Ah, there it was. I sat there and thought about it for a few seconds.

"Why?" He looked as if he expected for to ask questions. "And you still haven't answered my first question: Who or what are you? I didn't ask who sent you." I noticed his expression changed for at most a second. Then he pulled a big screen TV out of thin air and turned it on.

"This is what will happen if you keep fighting against Crayak and his tools," he said before pressing 'play.' What I saw scared me more then anything I could have imagined. This "movie" he was showing me forced me to feel and hear everything that was going through the person that was on the screen.

_She was running through the alleys trying to keep them away from the others. She knew that she would have to morph soon but she didn't know which morph would work best against these things. They were faster than anything she had, and the person that was leading them would use what he knew against her. _

'Riana_' he sing-songed inside her mind, she closed him out because he couldn't be allowed to hear her thoughts. The only problem with this that she didn't know exactly where _**he**_ was, she was pretty sure _**he**_ was behind as one of those creatures. It's been almost ten years since they started this war, and the Chee have been taken captive and their once best allies are now their worst enemies. They had lost the war, but there were still pockets of resistance out there somewhere, some being lead the other kids that were chosen, others being lead by humans and other alien creatures. The Andalites were forced to surrender last month they were still reeling from that loss. She had to keep giving them hope, if only he hadn't allowed _**her**_ to join, then none of this would've happened. He'd still be around to help, Faye wouldn't have gone insane, and _**he **_wouldn't be leading this charge against her. _

_She turned another corner and ran straight into _**him. **_He grabbed her wrists and kissed her violently, she kneed him in the balls and turned around to see the wolf-like creatures that had been chasing her. She was cornered and she couldn't even morph fast enough to give herself a fighting chance. She looked at the man slowly getting up, chuckling darkly. _

"_That wasn't nice, Ri, you should learn to treat you friends with better respect," She looked behind him to check if there was a chance for escape, when she saw the van she knew she'd lost. She just hoped that she could give the others a chance for the plan to succeed; she focused on their thoughts and heard screaming. They lost, the last plan that she came up with had failed and she couldn't figure out why. It should've worked; she had set everything up to work. _

"_So how'd you do it, Blade?" she asked him hiding the despair she felt. She knew he had something to do with the plan failing she just didn't know how. _

_He looked incredibly happy for a second before asking. "Whatever do you mean, Riana?" _

"_You know what I mean," she growled inching towards the wolf-like aliens that still didn't know what this species were called. He grabbed her arms before she could get any closer to them and handcuffed her to a fire escape before she could react. For the first time in a long time, she allowed fear to show on her face. _

"_Thank Jerryd, his empathic abilities have grown so much since he was captured, unfortunately like you every time we infest him, the Yeerk goes insane or kills himself. We still haven't figured out why that is, but according to him in our little 'play dates' it has something to do with the way your and his abilities were formed," _

"_He's still alive?" She asked in shock, everyone thought he had died. He and his family were the first to be taken; along with the guy, that Jerryd had convinced his mom to adopt because he was supposed to help protect them. That guy was now Sub-visser Ten, because he had turned in the other team that pissed off the now Visser One soon-to-be Councilor Thirteen._

"_Only just, between the play dates and his abilities he's close to insanity. He just doesn't truly appreciate pain the way he used to. He just takes it and screams only when absolutely has to. The last time I heard him truly scream, you know the type of scream that sends chills down your back," He closed his eyes and smiled in ecstasy at the memory, "was when we tortured and killed his baby sister in front of him, of course her Yeerk was given a different body before then." She shivered when she was told of this. _

"_I can't wait 'til the day you die, you filthy slug, I pray that you die of kandrona starvation!" she spat at him as she finished this curse. She struggled against the handcuffs hoping that they would give but to no avail. She sagged in defeat and looked at him furiously. "So what promotion will get with my death, Visser Seven?" she spat the title out._

"_Hopefully Visser Three, but I can settle with Visser Four. Especially with the Kandrona beam aimed at the moon, I should get the Three position because of that project." He was almost jumping for joy at this. She wanted nothing more than to force all of her power into his mind maybe driving the Yeerk insane, but she didn't know if she could do that to the real Blade._

"_You know there's something that I've been wondering if I could do with this ability that Blade has, but I didn't want to waste this experimentation on someone who couldn't appreciate my efforts. I was almost ready to call it quits and play with Jerryd with this new idea, until now that is," he smiled maliciously at her. She glared defiantly at him choosing not to answer. "The only problem is that I think it might actually kill you, but hey break a few eggs, right?"_

"_Just get on with it, Vermin" she growled out. She didn't think she could do it but it was just matter of redirecting the blunt force of thoughts to a new target. At least she thought so. He walked slowly and deliberately towards her. She looked directly into his eyes, she needed as much of a connection she could make with this thing in front of her. She couldn't stand forming a connection with him but it was necessary if her plan had any chance of working. He pulled her head back harshly and kissed her violently again._

"_You know, Blade was right, you do taste good," he whispered as he pulled away leering at her. That was when she tried to force her telepathic ability into his mind, hoping against hope it would work. "Let's see, we'll start here, see if it works." When she realized it wouldn't work she sighed in defeat then sent a message to the real Blade hoping he would hear it without the Yeerk interfering._

'Blade, I'm sorry I couldn't save you. Know that I don't blame you for anything that happened and that I love you so much. Don't give in, fry the bastard.' _She started to feel a small itch in her hand. She tried to ignore it and watch Visser Seven as he held her hand. That was when she realized what he was talking about, when he said he wanted to try something new. She bit her lip when she felt the itch increase a small bit. She tried to get her hand out of his grasp._

"_You feel it, don't you? The pain that's increasing," he whispered in her ear excitedly. She ignored him and tried to focus on something else besides the itch that had turned into a burning pain that was still growing. She gasped loudly as she felt tears start to flow down her cheek._

"_Scream, you know you want to. Scream and I'll give you a quick death." She glared at him not wanting to give in and beg. She wanted to die before she begged. She bit her lip even harder as she felt her blood boiling in her hand. He kissed her cheek in a parody of affection. "Just give in and scream and beg for it. You know what I want."_

_Her hand was starting to blister even though the fire hadn't even shown on the outside yet. Out of desperation, she kicked out violently hoping to at least get him away from her. She was brought temporary relief as he concentration was broken. Her hand still burned but the pain wasn't as bad now. Her foot had hit the mark and backed away gasping for air. He stood up a glared at her, she could almost see the fire in his eyes._

"_Didn't I say something about learning to treat your friends better, Riana?" She shivered in fear. She thought that maybe she should've just gave in before when he was telling her to. "Well at least I'll get to hear you scream as much as I want now, and no amount of begging will change that." She tried to pull away when she felt the itch start in her chest now. She wanted to scream as she felt her blood begin to boil now. She started to scream as she saw her hand burst into flames. The flames were extinguished as he grabbed her hand again and whispered in her ear once more. "Not yet, lover, you don't get to burn yet, I need to get what _**I**_ want first." She looked at him fearfully as stepped away from her. She didn't know where the itch was going to start next. Then she felt it, the itch began in a place she didn't think he would start there. When the itch started to increase, she started crying and holding back her screams for as long as possible._

The TV screen was shut off startling me out of my stupor. I couldn't believe that I had just seen that. I brought a hand to my face and realized that I was crying. I wiped the tears away and composed myself before I looked at the thing that had showed this to me.

"What the hell was that?" I asked barely controlling my emotions. I didn't know which ones were the strongest, grief, rage, or pain. I didn't know which one was the one that would break me at that moment. He looked gleeful at my emotional state then he sobered up.

"That, my dear child, was what's going to happen if you and your friends fight the Yeerks and doing so would mean going against the Great Crayak."

"You're saying we're going to lose no matter what," I looked at him intensely trying to figure out what he wanted exactly. He nodded as if I was a small child having trouble grasping a concept. "But the future's not set in stone, I can stop that from happening!"

"What makes you think so? Master Crayak showed me that future, and he knows all," He paused then began again. "Since that is the future, if you keep fighting you do know that you're entire family will be tortured and killed, right?" I wanted to say that I could change it, but I didn't know if I was willing to risk my family's lives for this.

_**Blade**_

When we arrived home, Mom was still asleep on the couch and she smelled so much like alcohol that I thought the very air was sanitized now. I was still having trouble allowing Arrow to touch me. I was afraid that if I wasn't careful then I'd accidentally set the whole place on fire. If this was the way, I was reacting to the events of today, then how could I handle a war?

"Okay kiddo, what's bothering you? You've been acting weirder than usual for the past coupla days?" Arrow asked concerned. I thought I was hiding it better, guess I wasn't. I was tempted to tell him the truth but I didn't want to go to an insane asylum anytime soon.

"Just still shocked that Dad left, and with what happened today, well guess I'm not handling it too well," he nodded sagely. I leaned against the wall keeping my arms crossed over my chest. I couldn't keep hiding my arms from eventually he's going to notice. But I hoped that it was a temporary thing. If not then maybe I could control it somehow. The phone rang at that moment when Arrow was going to reply.

"Hello?" I answered not sure who would be calling at this hour. Arrow motioned he was going to take a shower, I nodded waiting for the reply.

"Hey Blade," it was Faye and she sounded upset.

"What's wrong Faye?" She hesitated.

"What if Jerryd never wakes up? It'll be my fault and our project will go down!" She was close to tears, I could tell that much. I sighed, I didn't know what to say. I was never good at comforting people.

"He'll wake up, Faye, look he'll probably wake up tomorrow complaining about how much he couldn't stand the hospital. Also telling us how horrible we look because we did something stupid like worry about him," she chuckled and she calmed down a bit.

"Yeah, probably, and telling us how stupid we were for worrying about him. Thanks, Blade, you're better at it than you think. So get some sleep we should start think about animals we want to do for our project."

"You too, Faye, good night." She hung up but what she said made me realize that I even thought what animal I might choose to become. Lion? Tiger? Bear? What was I going to be? I got ready for bed with these thoughts running through my mind, when I settled on one that I thought might work well.

_**Riana**_

I woke up in the middle of the night almost screaming. I felt like I was burning from the inside-out. I brought a hand to face to find out that I was crying. We hadn't even started fighting and already I was having nightmares about the war.

I stood up and walked to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water. The voices were quiet and not just because I was still trying to focus on my father's mind. Also because it was nighttime and almost everyone was asleep. I didn't know how I was going to handle school. I got up to check on my sister and saw that she was still sleeping in her pajamas that had blue and white feathers on them. I checked at my parents' door and heard my dad snoring his head off.

I was walking downstairs, still trying to shake off the remnants of the nightmare, there was something else in the dream. I just couldn't remember what, but I had the feeling it was important. I shook my head and walked into the kitchen and nearly had a heart attack.

"Don't fear, I'm just here to help Jerryd," he said. He reminded me of an angel, and also an old man. He had a very kind face on him so I decided to listen to what he had to say.

"You're in the wrong place then, because Jerryd doesn't live here." He nodded as if this was what he expecting but that didn't make any sense to me. He gestured for me to sit down, and I did hoping my family wouldn't wake up.

"Right before you go back to sleep tonight, focus all of your efforts on the thing you want the most," he said before he disappeared. I blinked rapidly trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

I woke up in my bedroom again, confused and lost. I thought I had just woke up, but I guess not. I thought that was weird, even for me. I laid my head back down and thought of Jerryd before sleep overtook me.

I found myself in a white room. I was looking for something to mark where I was.

"What? How'd she get here?" I heard a very annoyed voice say behind me. I turned around and saw one of the ugliest things I had ever seen in my life. The expression he was wearing on his face didn't help his looks at all. Then I noticed someone else who was sitting on the ground turn around.

"Riana?" "Jerryd" we said at the same time. We ran to each other and hugged hard.

"What's going on, Jerryd?" I asked as we let go. I saw the TV screen close to where Jerryd had just been sitting. I looked questioningly at it, he followed my gaze and his face darkened.

"Well as you know I'm in a coma and people keep visiting me. First there was this old guy who was saying all kinds of cryptic crap, and then there was this freakazoid who hasn't told me his name yet, and now here's you!" I looked at the "freakazoid" and realized that might've been the best way to describe him, except "prune" also came to mind as well. "Anyways, he's here trying to make a deal, but I've been having trouble giving a definite answer."

"What's the deal?" I asked curious ignoring the prune-guy watching us intently.

"I can't tell you," I nodded and looked at the prune guy.

"So tell me what's your deal?" He smiled a tiny bit making me shiver. "Simple you turn over your services over to my master Crayak, and we'll keep you and your loved ones safe and sound."

"For how long?" That caught him off guard.

"What?"

"For how long? And why didn't you offer us this deal when we were all together as group? Jerryd may be the leader, but that doesn't give him the right to make deals that involve us as a whole behind our backs," I finished glaring at him. I couldn't explain it but something about him really irritated me. Jerryd was trying to get my attention, I noticed this but I didn't care at the moment.

"Another question: why won't you tell Jerryd your name? Are you like rumpelstiltskin? Or are you afraid to tell us your name because it might mean something else entirely? And just who exactly is Criminy?"

"His name is Crayak, and the knowledge of my name is a privilege, not a right for lesser beings such as you," he sneered at me. He turned to Jerryd, "Well, yes or no, this is a one time only offer." Jerryd didn't answer and just looked away. "Fine if you change your mind, just yell 'Master Crayak, please" he said as he vanished.

I turned to look at Jerryd and saw how pained he was. He fell down to the ground crying openly.

"The future, he showed me the future, you died, and Blade was controller. I felt everything you were going through and I couldn't stop it." He was sobbing. I was thrown, he was describing the nightmare I just had earlier that night. I held him close comforting him, letting him know that what he saw was a nightmare I had that night.

"Really?"

"Yes it wasn't the future, just my mind overreacting to all of the crap that was going on." He looked and composed himself. He stood up and looked at me.

"So how'd you get here?" I shrugged and explained that I thought of him right before I fell asleep. I didn't see the need to tell him that another dream led me here. I honestly didn't know if I lied to him or not about what he saw not being the future. I vowed that whatever happened we would win. Or at least I wouldn't let him get captured.

"So if I focus on my body, then theoretically I should wake up, right?" I nodded acting as if I understood what he just said. "Riana, maybe you should focus on yours first so that you don't end up getting trapped here or anything." I nodded and focused on my bedroom and my sleeping form on the in my dog and cat pajamas.

I sat straight up gasping, not afraid just out of energy. I looked at the clock, it was almost three o' clock in the morning. I heard the phone ring, I jumped up and ran to the phone in the hallway.

"Hello?" I said out of breath. I looked at my parents' door and saw my dad standing there looking at me curiously.

"Riana?" I recognized the voice as belonging to Jerryd's mom.

"Yes."

"Oh good I just thought you might like to know that he just woke up." I was extremely happy and I told her that I'd come by the next day. I couldn't believe it! Parts of my dreams were true, but if those parts were true then were the other parts true as well? I didn't know and decided that I'd think about it later, if I had the time that is. These were my last thoughts, as I went to sleep yet again that night.


End file.
